Heunert, Iwan Henrich.

Heunert, Iwan Henrich, born 28-08-1886 in Kiel, joined the Army, as a Fahnenjunker in the 2^nd Horse Jäger Regiment on 01-10-1906, age 20. Leutnant Heunert married his fiancée Hildegard Bertha Marie Brecht on 30-01-1913 in Hanover. He was in the fields of the first war with the command of the Staff Watch of Army August von  Mackensen.

    Heunert retired on 31-12-1920 and entered the Police Service. He was transferred to the growing Army again on 15-10-1935. When World War II started he was commander of the 22^nd Infantry Regiment, until 26-08-1939. Following commander of the 58^th Infantry Division  to 04-09-1941. The division ended the year 1944 trapped in a small bridgehead around Memel, with their only option was to retreat down the Spit towards Konigsberg. There the last soldiers of the division under Oberst Wilhelm Eggemann    went into Soviet captivity. Heunert then landed in the infamous Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know), until 23-10-1941, succeeded by Generalleutnant Dr. Friedrich Altrichter Altrichter died in Bedaik, East Siberian’s prison, age 58, on 14-04-1949. Commander of the Rear Army Area 525 to 01-07-1943 and again until 30-11-1944 in the Führer Reserve.  The Führerreserve (“Officers Reserve”) was set up in 1939 as a pool of temporarily unoccupied high military officers waiting for new assignments in the German Armed Forces during World War II. The various military branches and army groups each had their own pool which they could use as they saw fit. The officers were required to remain at their assigned stations and be available to their superiors, but could not exercise any command function, which was equivalent to a temporary retirement while retaining their previous income. Especially in the second half of the war, more and more politically problematic, troublesome, or militarily incompetent officers were assigned to the Führerreserve. Examples: Major Karl August Meinel, 01-08-1942, was shifted into the Führerreserve, because on 13-01-1942 he wrote a critical report to General Hermann Reinecke

on the segregation and execution of Russian prisoners of war in prison camp Stalag VII-A  by the Gestapo  and the Sicherheitsdienst SD  (security Service) of the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler Stalag VII-A was north of Moosberg, a Bavarian town close to Munich. Hermann Reinecke died old age 85, on 10-10-1973.

Georg Thomas,  head of the Military Economics and Armament Office of the Armed Forces Supreme Command, played an essential role in drawing up the starvation policy for the occupied Eastern territories. He was transferred to the Officers Reserve on 20-11-1942 and arrested after the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler because of his contacts with the resistance. Thomas died died in Allied custody on 29-12-1946, age 56.

Head of the Army General Staff from 1938 until September, 1942, Franz Halder,  head of the Army General Staff, planned army operations from 1939 to 1941. He was dismissed in 1942 and transferred to the Officers Reserve. After the assassination attempt on Hitler of 20 July 1944, his involvement in a conspiracy in 1938 came to light, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in Flossenbürg concentration camp.  He was freed by U.S. troops in May 1945. In camp Flossenburg, Wilhelm Canaris and Hans Paul Oster were killed only days before the end of the war. Walter von Brauchitsch.

  became Supreme Commander of the Army in 1938 and was decisively involved in planning Operation Barbarossa. He was dismissed on 19-12-1941 because of the military defeat at Moscow and transferred to the Officers Reserve.

Death and burial ground of Heunert, Iwan Henrich.

  

Heunert was retired on 30-11-1944, not useful for Hitler’s warfare anymore. Heunert lived in Lüneburg until his death at the age of 80, on 06-05-1977 and is buried on the Zentral Cemetery of Lüneburg. Only steps away the graves of WWII Generalmajor der Infanterie, Feldkommandeur 497^th Marseille, Claus Boie and General der Infanterie, Commander 14^th Army, Kurt von Tippelkirch.